Crystal and Ice
by Akairo Kessho
Summary: At the battle on the unfinished Great Naruto Bridge, Naruto unlocks the power of Shoton, Crystal Release, causing an entirely different set of events to unfold. Naruto has a new bloodline, and Haku is left alive, with all the power and wealth of Gato at her disposal, all to fulfill her master's dream.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto and Sasuke had been locked into battle with Haku for what seemed like an eternity to them both, again and again they both did what they could to dodge volley after volley of senbon that were wearing them both down slowly.

Naruto could feel himself beginning to slow down more and more after each senbon found its mark. Pretty soon, Naruto felt like he was almost done for, and as if right on queue, another wave of senbon was headed towards, and this time, Naruto knew that he couldn't dodge them.

A wave of regret, rather than fear hit Naruto, 'Old man, I'm sorry, I guess I won't become Hokage after all.'

Watching this, Sasuke felt himself compelled to act, and was just about to leap at Naruto to remove him from harm's way, when something totally unexpected happened.

As the senbon got closer and closer to Naruto, a wall made entirely out of red crystals formed itself between Naruto and the ice senbon, easily blocking the tiny projectiles. Haku, from within her ice mirrors nearly stopped moving out of shock, and Naruto himself could only stare at the red crystals in amazement. But while Haku was distracted, and moving slower than usual, Sasuke acted quickly and threw several kunai at where his Sharingan predicted that Haku would be between the ice mirrors, and sure enough, the kunai found their mark, mostly.

On her way in between mirrors, Haku was suddenly struck in the arm by several kunai that threw her off course, and he ended up landing in a painful heap behind one of the mirrors, suddenly clutching his arm in pain, staring in amazement at the two holes that the kunai had made before the impact with the bridge jarred them loose in an incredibly painful way.

The giant ring of ice mirrors suddenly disappeared, sinking back into the puddles from which they had been summoned from. But this did not mean that Haku was done, she pulled the kunai free from her arm while dashing backwards to gain distance from Naruto and Sasuke.

Meanwhile, both Sasuke and Naruto were staring in amazement at the crystalline structure that had apparently come from out of no where. Naruto had felt that when the crystal structure had appeared, it had drained from his chakra, "Hey Sasuke, I think that I somehow made this, I felt it drain from my chakra when the crystal appeared, and it appeared just in time to probably save my life."

Sasuke seemed to scoff at that for a moment, "You realize that this must be some kind of bloodline, right? It awakened when it was needed to save your life, like my Sharingan did earlier."

Naruto was at a loss of words for once, unable to process that he, an orphan that had no family, must have actual been from a clan that had a bloodline.

Sasuke interrupted Naruto's thoughts, "Well whatever it is, you had better learn how to control it, because it looks like Haku is coming back now."

Both of them turned towards where Haku had backed off to for time to wrap up her arm, only to now see her dashing back towards them, four more senbon in one hand, while the other hand flashed through one handed signs, "Ice Style: Swallow Snow Storm!" Forming out of thin air came a large number of swallows made completely out of ice, but Naruto could see that the wings of the birds were tapered to an incredibly sharp point. Naruto and Sasuke both dashed out of the way of the cloud of birds, each going in different directions, only to see the birds change direction as they went past them, now coming straight at them as they were both still in mid air.

Sasuke with his Sharingan still active, was able to dodge all but one of the dozen swallows that swarmed by him, leaving him with a gash just above his right knee. Naruto however, did not have the predictive capabilities of the Sharingan, and as the swallows got closer and closer, Naruto was about to raise his arms to brace for the impacts, but instinct took over, and he instead felt a large pull on his chakra again, and another crystal wall formed itself in between Naruto and the ice swallows, and the swallows were unable to change direction soon enough to dodge the wall, shattering against the hardened crystal.

Haku could only watch in fascination as her swallows were neutralized by Naruto, again by the mysterious crystals he could apparently make, which seemed rather similar to how her ice could be manipulated, only Naruto was not needing to make hand signs at all, it was as if it was natural manipulation of the crystals, somehow bypassing the need for hand signs to properly shape his chakra.

Sasuke however, still had to deal with his swallows, but this time as they came at him without the element of surprise, Sasuke quickly flashed through hand signs, "Fire Style: Giant Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke quickly produced a large fireball that was way too large for the swallows to avoid, and they were quickly melted by the fireball.

Naruto and Sasuke both had the same thought upon seeing the fireball melt the swallows, 'So it was only the ice mirrors that were strong enough to resist fire.'

Both Naruto and Sasuke had kept Haku in their sights this time, watching to make sure that she did not catch them by surprise again. Naruto began the charge at her, creating nearly a dozen shadow clones around him as he charged at her from her right, while Sasuke charged in from her left.

Seeing the large threat that Naruto and his clones were, Haku began to dash backwards further, throwing ice senbon as she did so. As the wave of ice senbon rocketed towards Naruto and the clones, Naruto and all of the clones knew what to do, and replicated the flow of chakra that had previously occurred to protect Naruto, only this time they did it a little bit differently, and as the senbon grew dangerously close to Naruto and his clones, they were all suddenly encompassed by crystal, the added weight forcing them to fall harmlessly at the feet of Naruto and his clones.

Naruto was seized by a brief feeling of triumph, 'Yes! My idea worked!' before steeling himself, and continuing to race towards Haku, who was still skipping backwards, throwing senbon at Naruto and his clones to slow them down, each senbon simply falling at their feet covered in crystal.

As Haku was backing up however, she could see the mist surrounding Zabuza and Kakashi's fight fall away, revealing Zabuza pinned down by a number of dogs, with Kakashi clutching his right arm which was covered in raw electricity, and he began to run towards Zabuza, his intent obvious, to kill her master.

Without a second of hesitation, Haku took off, moving as fast as she could to somehow stop Kakashi from killing Zabuza, and she saw only one way to do so, she was going to throw herself in between Kakashi and Zabuza, and sacrifice herself to save Zabuza.

She would have arrived in time to save her master, except for one thing, Naruto. Naruto had a brief moment of inspiration, and had several of his clones throw them towards Haku as hard as they could, and with 5 clones, Naruto was moving very fast, almost fast enough to stop Haku himself, but that was not his plan.

Naruto was only ten feet behind Haku, but beginning to slow down, but he was close enough, and as Haku's foot touched down on the bridge to launch herself back up into the air, red crystal grew out of the bridge and engulfed her foot, crawling up to the middle of her shin before stopping, effectively stopping her in her tracks.

Haku could then only watch helplessly as Kakashi pierced the heart of Zabuza with his Raikiri, and a cry of anguish tore itself from her throat, "NO!"

The nin-dogs dispelled, their job done as Zabuza fell to the ground stone dead. Haku continued to try in vain to free herself from the crystal, but no matter what she tried, she couldn't, so she collapsed, tears running down her face in anguish at the death of her master, who she thought of as a surrogate father.

As Zabuza fell dead to the ground, a cruel laughing could be heard, and everyone on the bridge looked up to see that Gato had arrived, with a small army of thugs at his back.

"You know, I really must thank you for taking care of Zabuza for me, I was worried I would have to have my boys kill him after he was done killing all of you, but with him dead I won't have to worry about that, and he thought that I was going to PAY HIM, what a fool."

Gato walked back and forth in front of his goons, before speaking again, "They all look tired and worn out from their fighting, go finish them off them off boys!"

At once, all of the goons began to rush forward, and to encourage them, Gato yelled out, "Ten thousand ryu for whoever brings me the head of a ninja!"

Their assault was brought to an abrupt stop, after Kakashi signaled Naruto, and the two of them both poured as much chakra as they could into creating clones, creating a group of clones that was almost equal to half of the number of thugs.

From where Naruto stood however, he heard a voice call out t him, "Naruto, please release me from this crystal, so I may go kill Gato myself. I have no animosity towards anyone in your group, but I will make Gato pay for getting me and Zabuza-sama into this situation in the first place."

Naruto looked over to Kakashi, who nodded his head in agreement, and Naruto used his chakra to loosen the hold of the crystal on Haku's leg, and she quickly pulled her foot out, and pulled off the Hunter-nin mask that she had been wearing prior, shocking Naruto as he finally realized that the foe that he and Sasuke had been fighting this whole time was in fact the boy that he had met in the forest a few days before, and had mistaken for a girl.

The army of thugs wearily began to come to a stop thirty feet shy of the small army of shadow clones, before Gato again commanded them, "If you want to get paid, go KILL THOSE NINJA, and FIFTY THOUSAND ryu for Tazuna's head!"

The two groups then finally rushed at each other, shadow clones against hired thugs. Normally, even when the odds are 1 to 2, shadow clones would have had no problem against hired thugs, but both Naruto and Kakashi had already previously been tired, Kakashi's Sharingan and Naruto's Crystal Release having drained a large amount of chakra from the both of them, thoroughly weakening the strength of the clones.

The four ninja, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Haku were about to intervene themselves, until over the crest of a hill before the bridge, the entire village appeared, armed with make shift weapons and armor, armed with rakes, wood cutter's axes, hammers, and similar attire.

It was Inari, Tazuna's grandson, who in the front of all of the villagers, and he spoke confidently down towards Gato and his men, "The people of our village, of the Land of Waves will lie down for you no longer Gato!" And at once, they all began to run down the hill, shouting war cries as they did so.

The appearance of the villagers, however ill equipped, completely shattered the moral of each and every one of the hired thugs, and they all threw down their weapons, and were prepared to turn and flee towards the boat that they had arrived on and left moored just on the side of the bridge on one of the support pillars, when a wall of ice mirrors rose up, cutting them all off from reaching their escape, Gato included.

Naruto turned to where Haku had been next to him, only to now see her in each of the ice mirrors, six in total, "There is no escape for the hired scum that committed untold villainy and atrocities to the people of Wave. For all of you, you shall face justice. And the only justice for murderers and thugs is death."

The villagers and team seven could only watch in a mix of morbid fascination and horror as wave after wave of ice senbon rained down upon the thugs, each and every single senbon finding a lethal point on their target, and in seconds, the thugs were all dead, none of them even having been able to utter a cry of pain.

But left in the center of all of the dead thugs, was Gato himself, left cowering pathetically on the ground, weeping. Haku jumped down out of the ice mirrors, letting them disappear behind her as she walked towards Gato, who she grabbed by the collar of his shirt, and pulled up to his feet.

"Gato will no longer be a problem for the people of Wave, his men are all dead, and I will ensure that Gato will never harm another human being again." With that, Haku was gone, dashing down off of the bridge and onto the boat that was still moored down below, heading back to Gato's hideout.

* * *

><p>The next week was spent in celebration for the liberation of the Village of Wave, the common people constantly thanking Team Seven for all of their help, even if it hadn't entirely been them to finally handle Gato and his men, though without their help their village would surely have still been doomed.<p>

Team Seven however, spent the week mostly resting; Kakashi was entirely burnt out again, while Sasuke was in a similar state. Naruto bounced back the next day however, good as new, constantly experimenting with his new found bloodline, the origin of which still baffled the entire team, including Kakashi, who was by far the most perplexed.

On the seventh day, the bridge was finally completed with the help of Naruto's shadow clones under the guidance of Tazuna. Team Seven was finally ready to now leave, the bridge was complete, Gato was almost certainly dead or imprisoned somewhere by Haku, and their mission was finally complete.

As Team Seven began their journey back home, the entire village turned up to watch them go, cheering their name's as they left, mixed in with a large amount of blessings.

As Tazuna and Inari stood with Tsunami to watch Team Seven leave, Tazuna began to ponder out loud what they should name the bridge, only for Inari to suggest a name, "The Great Naruto Bridge, because it was Naruto who gave us all courage and hope again to stand up against Gato."

Tazuna and Tsunami could only nod in agreement, it was a suiting name, not to mention the blood red crystals that were found all over the bridge, not to mention the two walls of crystal that had to moved off of the bridge, which Inari had insisted be erected at the beginning of the bridge.

* * *

><p>About ten minutes after Team Seven was out of view from the people of wave, they were suddenly approached by Haku, who walked out of the woods along the road back to Konoha.<p>

Sensing that Haku's intentions were not hostile, Kakashi made no move to stop Haku, who stopped a few feet in front of Kakashi, addressing him, "I know that you captured the Demon Brothers, Gozu and Meizu, I would like to pay for their freedom."

Kakashi shifted nervously, "Gozu and Meizu were taken back to Konoha, I sent word to Anbu to retrieve them, you will have to come with us back to the village to negotiate with the Hokage for their freedom, and it will probably cost you a lot, they are renowned missing nin from Kirigakure, and Kiri has a high bounty on them of almost forty thousand ryu, you will probably have to match that to get their freedom."

Haku smiled at that, "I took all of Gato's money from him, as well as had him sign over his entire business empire to me before I let him walk away, he is penniless, he will now feel what it felt like for the villagers of Wave."

Kakashi nodded, a cruel punishment, but fair for the crimes he had committed, "Then you no doubt have more than enough money to buy their freedom, come with us and you will be able to get into the village with us and meet with the Hokage."

Haku nodded, and the group was again on the move, Haku falling in a little behind Team Seven as they walked, while the genin all had mixed feelings about Haku tagging along with them.

Sakura was afraid of Haku, having seen how she probably would have for sure been able to kill both Naruto and Sasuke if not for Naruto unlocking the crystal release bloodline to save the situation.

Sasuke was wary of Haku, but eagerly wanted to fight her again, she was an opponent that was capable of keeping him on his toes in terms of speed, something that only Kakashi could do, but he would never go remotely close to all out in a spar.

Naruto however, was just intensely curious about Haku, still not being entirely sure if Haku was a boy or a girl, Haku's voice and appearance and voice were that of a girl, but Haku had told him she was a boy, plus he wondered why she would take Gato's business and money, what would she need all of the money for?

To ask Haku himself, Naruto slowed down for a moment, and fell in step with Haku, asking her first, "So really, are you a boy or a girl?"

The question made Haku smile, while Sakura was appalled that Naruto would have the balls to simply ask Haku that, while Sasuke and Kakashi simply listened to hear the answer, having both been slightly curious about it as well.

Haku waited a moment before replying, "I am a girl, but around everyone but Zabuza, Zabuza made me act and tell everyone I was a boy. Zabuza made me do so because he did not want to hear the endless teasing from Gozu and Meizu about him being the sensei of a girl."

Team Seven as a whole figuratively face palmed at hearing that, making someone hide their gender to avoid teasing from someone was definitely different, to say the least.

Naruto waited a moment to ask his next question, "So about Gato and his money, why did you take it all? What could you need all of that money for? Tazuna said that Gato was insanely rich."

Haku waited for a moment before replying, "I gave a large amount of it, nearly three million ryu to Tazuna to give back to all of the people of wave, I know he was a good and fair man, I am sure that when he finds it, he will distribute it fairly to all of the people to improve their lives."

The entire team stopped to stare at Haku in amazement, Kakashi being the first to say something, "That was very noble and kind of you to do, Haku-san."

Haku bowed her head in embarrassment, "Gato took a lot from the people of wave, not nearly that much money, but he caused them a lot of pain and suffering."

There was silence as they began walking again, Naruto still walking besides Haku, but it was only so long before he could ask his next question, "What about the rest of the money, what are you going to do with it?"

"With the remaining two million ryu I am going to fulfill Zabuza-sama's dream, I was his tool, but more than that, I was like a daughter to him, and he, a father to me. He wanted, more than anything, to raise enough money to pay for an army to seize control of Kirigakure from the evil and cruel Mizukage Yagura. With the demon brothers, and with as many soldiers as I can buy, I will fulfill Zabuza-sama's dream."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I quickly want to say thank you for those of you who read my story all the way through, I really like this idea for a story, I have never found a story where Naruto has the Crystal Release bloodline, and so I wanted to write one. Let me know if there IS already a story like this out there, as I would very much like to read it. Please let me know what you thought, pm or review, either way.<p>

For those of you wondering, Haku and her mission to seize control of Kirigakure will be a MAJOR part in this story, and there will probably be a few chapters dedicated to that.

P.S. If you are wondering how I am going to explain Naruto having Crystal Release, it will probably be a while before it is all explained, but when it is, I hope you all like the way that I came up with.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

AN: I apologize in advance for having to summarize the first chapter, but I felt that rather than skip over the mission report, I would rather write it out, so that you know exactly what transpires. Sorry for the wait for this, I completely forgot that I had set out to actually post my stories, and I only remembered that I was supposed to post another chapter after I checked my email for the first time in a few months.

Team Seven and Haku walked into Konoha with relatively little questioning, the two chunin on guard duty asked the minimal amount of questions about Haku's identity before simply brushing the whole ordeal aside, trusting in Kakashi's judgment to bring the girl to Konoha. A few minutes later, the whole team, plus Haku arrived in the Hokage's office to give a debrief to him of the entire mission, since the mission parameters had been completely changed, and since the bounty of two rouge Kiri chunin were to be discussed, they were to meet with the Hokage personally.

With the whole team and their charge in his office and quiet, Sarutobi nodded his head towards Kakashi, "A full report of the mission, if you would."

Kakashi likewise nodded before he began to tell the tale, "Things began to take an unexpected turn after we were ambushed by the missing nin Gozu and Meizu, also known as the Demon Brothers. However, they were shortly incapacitated, and bound so as to be picked up by an ANBU squad later. At this point, I questioned Tazuna as to why two chunin ninja would have been hired to assassinate him when he had hired us to protect him from petty bandits.

After a short discussion, we found out that the shipping business tycoon Gato was not the simple businessman that he had seemed on paper, and in fact used his shipping business as a front to ship drugs, contraband and other illegal things, and had bought up all the shipping on the island of Wave Country. He crippled the economy and spirit of the people, forcing taxes from the people, under threat from his private army of thugs, slowly draining the life from the people.

I asked my genin whether or not we should continue the mission, knowing that the next person to be sent by Gato would be stronger, at least a jounin in strength. They were determined to continue on, believing that since we had agreed to protect Tazuna, even though things had changed, we were still bound to help him, and they also felt a moral obligation to try and help the people of Wave, something that I also shared with them."

Kakashi took a moment to let the Hokage take in all the information, and at a curt nod from him, continued with the tale, "Shortly after, we were ambushed before we could arrive at a boat that would take us across the water to Wave Country, this time by the jounin missing nin from the Hidden Mist named Zabuza Momochi. After a brief skirmish with Zabuza, while keeping the genin out of the way, I was caught by surprise and trapped in a water prison by Zabuza.

After this, I told the genin to leave and take Tazuna and run, but they stayed, and with Sakura staying near Tazuna, Naruto and Sasuke used clever teamwork to outsmart Zabuza and force him to release me from the water prison. After this, me and Zabuza engaged in a full fight, after which I was about to kill him when an accomplice of his, disguised as a Hunter-nin used senbon to stop Zabuza's heart and trick me into thinking that Zabuza had died, before I passed out from chakra exhaustion. After this, the fake Hunter-nin took Zabuza away, and Naruto's shadow clones carried me the rest of the way to Tazuna's home.

The next 6 days were spent training the genin, while I guarded the bridge and began to recuperate, preparing for the battle with Zabuza that I knew would have to come eventually. This fight did commence on the seventh day, I engaged Zabuza, while Naruto and Sasuke were entangled with fighting Haku, the fake Hunter-nin from earlier." At this, Kakashi gestured to Haku, who had up to this moment only gained a curious glance from the ancient Hokage, "My fight with Zabuza went well, as before, I was ultimately able to win the upper hand, while the fight between Haku and Sasuke and Naruto did not go as well.

Haku trapped both Sasuke and Naruto into her own original jutsu, "Demonic Ice Mirrors" through which she could move through at incredibly high speeds, and throw senbon at them both, slowly but surely wearing them both down, even after Sasuke awakened his Sharingan during the fight. Now, I need Naruto to tell the rest."

Hiruzen looked curiously at Naruto, wondering as to why Kakashi would feel the need to have Naruto tell the tale, rather than himself, 'Something important must have happened, but what, exactly?'

Naruto smiled nervously, a sharp contrast to his usually outspoken and charismatic self, "Well, after dodging senbon as long as I could, Haku finally caught me, and a wave of senbon aimed at my chest and neck could have certainly been the end of me. Except, something happened that saved me from the senbon. I felt a drain from my chakra, and then between me and the senbon, a large number of blood red crystals had grown out of the bridge, and stopped the senbon."

If it were not for decades of practice maintaining composure, Hiruzen would have surely dropped his pipe out of his mouth in surprise at this news, whatever he had expected, blood red crystals were certainly NOT among his theories.

Naruto shuffled his feet nervously before continuing, "Haku was distracted by the crystals, and I was too, so Sasuke took the opportunity to catch Haku with several kunai, hitting her arm and forcing her out of the ice mirrors, and she had to dash away to pull the kunai out of her arm. I had finally snapped out of my astonishment, as Haku came back to attack us again. For the next several minutes, the red crystals kept appearing and saving me from harm, until the mist that had surrounded Kakashi and Zabuza's fight finally disappeared, and Haku tried to run to go save Zabuza, but I managed to run and catch up for a moment to control the red crystal to cover her foot and keep her trapped to the bridge.

So Zabuza died, and just then, Gato appeared with almost two hundred thugs, and he was going to have them kill our team and Tazuna. But then Inari showed up with nearly the entire village armed with whatever they could get, they had all finally stood up to Gato. But then Haku told me to release her, because Gato said he had never had any intention of paying Zabuza, and was planning to kill him, so I did, and in a moment, she set up ice mirrors around Gato and all of his men, and just killed them all, except Gato. She made Gato sign over his business and all his assets to her, and she let him live, penniless."

Kakashi put a hand softly on Naruto's shoulder, before finishing the tale, "In three more days, the bridge was finished, and we finally departed for home, going over the new bridge as we did so. After getting a distance away, Haku approached us to say that she wanted to come here to negotiate for the freedom of the Demon Brothers, and was willing to pay the bounty prices on them to free them."

Hiruzen rubbed at his chin absently before replying, "Usually I do not negotiate a trade for missing nin like this, but in these circumstances, I will be willing to do so if you can pay the 42,000 ryu bounty on the two of them, if you tell me why you wish to free them."

Haku stopped for a second before telling the truth, "Gozu and Meizu may not be the kindest men, but they were loyal to Zabuza-sama, and his dream, to overthrow Yagura the tyrant Mizukage, and establish someone as Mizukage that would be better for the village. I am going to need their help, because with the funds I took from Gato, and the quarterly income he made from his legit shipping business, I am going to form an army to oppose Yagura."

Hiruzen nodded, "Then the arrangements will be made, and Meizu and Gozu will be released to you when you pay for their freedom, if you would wait outside of the office, I will send someone to collect the bounty from you while Gozu and Meizu are retrieved. After that, an ANBU squad will accompany the three of you until you are out of Fire Country."

Haku bowed her head slightly, "Thank you, Hokage-sama." After that, she left the Hokage's office, the large oak doors creaking shut behind her as she left.

Hiruzen pulled out his tobacco pipe, lighting the tobacco already in the pipe with a small fire from the tip of his finger, and took a long draft from the pipe, "Sasuke and Sakura, you are free to go, I am sure you are ready for more than deserved rest after your journey."

As they turned to leave, Sasuke and Sakura threw a questioning glance at Naruto, who for his part, also looked confused, "Am I free to go too Jiji?"

Hiruzen shook his head, "Not quite yet Naruto, I just have a few questions to ask you about the abilities you displayed during your mission."

Sasuke opened the oaken doors to the office, leaving with one more questioning glance at Naruto, while Sakura followed behind him rather silently compared to her usual charisma, clearly absorbed in her own thoughts. Once again, the oak doors creaked shut.

Naruto looked confused for a second, before realization spread across his face, "Oh you mean the cool crystals? Here, let me show you!" On Naruto's command, a crimson crystal began to grow out of the floor, spiraling beautifully up to about five feet high before Naruto stopped flowing his chakra to it.

This was surprising to Hiruzen, as what Naruto had just done was raw nature manipulation of the bizarre crystal, not controlled in a jutsu using to hand seals, but done on an instinctual level simply using his chakra, and transforming it into the crystals, the crimson color of which was ominous, obviously matching the color of the chakra of the Kyuubi, not that Naruto would know that.

"Naruto, how much of your chakra does it take to create a crystal like that?"

Hiruzen's question seemed odd to Naruto, but he responded anyways, "Not much at all, I barely feel any drain at all when I create crystals. And it really didn't take long to get the hang of either, it is so easy make them!"

Hiruzen smiled at Naruto's enthusiasm, while he exchanged a glance with Kakashi, who still stood off to the side silently, and from the look in his eye, Kakashi had the same thoughts, with the ease with which Naruto could control the crystals, and the color of them, it was obviously the Kyuubi's doing, especially with how it appeared at the moment when it was needed to save his life, and now the Kyuubi had given Naruto the ability to control the crystals so as to protect himself.

Hiruzen smiled at Naruto however, decades of experience keeping any of his thoughts from showing on his face, and after taking another draft from his pipe, before he suddenly became more serious and told Naruto, "That is all that I needed to know, you are free to go now, but first, there are a few things I am going to tell you, and I need you to listen to me."

Naruto nodded his head enthusiastically, "Whatever you need Jiji!"

Keeping a smile on his face, Hiruzen instructed Naruto, "I don't want you to use your ability to control crystals anywhere where someone other than me, Kakashi, or your teammates can see you, okay? I want you to keep it a secret for now, can you do that?"

Naruto was puzzled, his first nature was to go around and show off to all of his friends how cool his new ability was, but sensing how serious that the Hokage was, he nodded his head, "I guess I can do that, but I am sure that everyone would think it is really cool."

"I am sure that everyone will, but let's keep it a secret for a little while longer, okay?"

Naruto again nodded his head, "Okay, I can keep it a secret for now, I guess."

Hiruzen smiled, "Good, now you are free to go, go get some rest, and relax after your mission."

Naruto turned, and rather sullenly left the room, obviously dejected that he could not share his new ability with his other friends besides Sasuke and Sakura, who weren't much in the way of friends, even if him and Sasuke were starting to get closer, he was still a jerk, and Sakura resisted any attempts to go on a date with him.

With Naruto now gone, Hiruzen turned to Kakashi, concern finally showing on his face as he was alone with one of the men that he trusted most in Konoha, "You obviously have the same thoughts as me, Kakashi. Obviously Naruto's new ability is given somehow by the Kyuubi, but I am concerned as to how the Kyuubi could have manipulated the seal, even if it was for something that seemingly only helps Naruto."

Kakashi was silent, his usually ever present Icha Icha novel still in his back pocket, due to the potential seriousness of the situation, "By my guess, there must have been catch in the seal, that when Naruto's life was in potentially mortal danger, allowed the Kyuubi to do something to save Naruto. I would have thought that if such a catch was in the seal though, it would have been the Kyuubi's raw chakra that would have been given to Naruto to save him, but instead, Naruto manifested the ability to control the strange crystals."

Both Kakashi and Hiruzen were now looking at the five foot high crystal spiral that was still formed in front of the Hokage's desk. "It is rather strange, and a matter that I am going to have to discuss with Jiraiya to find out more, for now, we keep an eye on Naruto and his control of the crystals, and attempt to keep it a secret, especially from Danzo, who knows what he will want to do about this. In the meantime however, I guess the only thing to do is watch, and try to study this crystal he made to attempt to learn more about it."

As Naruto left the Hokage's office, and closed the door behind him, he saw Haku still standing outside patiently, and nervously walked over to her, "Hey Haku, I wanted to ask you something."

Haku glanced up at him, his voice obviously taking her from deep thoughts, "Yes, Naruto-san?"

Naruto chuckled lightly, "You can just call me Naruto you know, there isn't any reason to be so formal, besides, and I think we are friends, aren't we?"

Haku took a moment to think, 'He stopped me from saving Zabuza-sama's life, but you he is a kind and caring person.' "Yes, I think that we can be friends, putting everything behind us, we both have the same ideals, that only by fighting to protect those we love, can you truly be strong."

Naruto smiled, "Good, because you are a good person Haku. And that is why I wanted to ask you this, do you really think that you could take on a whole ninja village, even with an army? I mean, if that Yagura guy is Mizukage, he must be crazy powerful."

Haku nodded, "Indeed he is, he is the Jinchuriki of the Sanbi, and has terrifying powers granted by it. But that does not worry me, Zabuza-sama told me that many in Mizugakure hate and fear Yagura, and would be more than willing to join a fight against him. With those that would stand against him, and whoever I can hire to help me, I will remove Yagura from power."

Even though Haku was passionate, Naruto had stopped paying attention, even though he had pursued the conversation, because his mind was stuck on a few words she had said, 'he is the Jinchuriki of the Sanbi, and he has terrifying powers granted by it.'

Many people may have thought it, and based off of his usual behavior, Naruto seemed to be rather stupid, but he wasn't. Naruto was actually fairly intelligent, which was why those few words blew away the entire theory that his powers to control crystal were a bloodline, now he understood that they had to be from the Kyuubi, it couldn't be a coincidence. Now that his mind saw the clues, Naruto put the pieces together, he had heard of the appearance of the Kyuubi, a mass of blood red chakra, matching his crimson crystals no doubt.

Haku had quickly noticed that something she had said seemed to bother Naruto, as he had become distant, and lost in some train of thought, "Naruto-san, are you alright? Was there something that I said that confused you?"

Haku's voice took Naruto out of his thoughts, as he remembered that he was still standing in front of Haku, "I told you not to call me Naruto-san didn't I? And no, Haku, it is just that I remembered something that is probably very important, and I have to go, good luck to you, and your mission, Haku-chan, I hope I see you around someday, it would be great to meet up and see what we have both accomplished."

Naruto left in a hurry, his thoughts still mostly on the suddenly obvious connection between his crystals and the Kyuubi the foremost thing on his mind. He was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't see the faint blush on Haku's face as she heard the "chan" added to her name.

Haku cleared her face as another man approached, a chunin judging from the vest he wore, "Haku I presume? My name is Kotetsu, I am here to take you to the village gates, where Gozu and Meizu await you with an ANBU team, if you would give me the promised amount of money, then we can be on our way."

Haku nodded, reaching inside her kimono, pulling out a check that was already pre-filled out with the 42,000 ryu that was asked for the release of Gozu and Meizu, handing it over to Kotetsu, who nodded, and the two of them left the building, heading towards the village gates.

As they left however, Haku's thoughts were drawn towards Naruto, the energetic blonde was a person she would likely never forget, and a part of her hoped that the someday that Naruto had referred to would not be too far into the future, she wanted see him again, before some other girl realized what a kind and good hearted man that he was.

As Haku was leaving the village, the four members of team seven were all in various places, but they were all doing the same the thing, trying to find out more about Naruto, and his ability to control red crystals.

Sakura was searching the public library for a mention of an Uzumaki family, because if Naruto had some control over crystals, to her it had to be a bloodline, and one that would have to have been relatively well known with how powerful the possibilities of such a bloodline could be.

Sasuke was likewise trying to find out more about Naruto's apparent bloodline, though with a different approach, he was breaking into the academy records on students, where they would have a copy of Naruto's birth certificate, with the names of his parents listed on it.

Naruto, however, had previously tried what his teammates were doing, and knew that those routes would lead nowhere, as he had tried to find out about his family a long time ago. But it wasn't a family bloodline, instead, Naruto was also in the public library, though he was looking for any reference to Jinchuriki that he could find.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was following a similar route as Naruto, trying to learn more about the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, but he had access to the ANBU's collective library, a resource that was hundreds of times more likely to grant some insight to the abilities that Naruto possessed.

Author's Note: And there you have it, chapter two, mostly filler at the moment, as I build up to a number of significant plot points that should begin to unfold in the next chapter, what with Sasuke and Sakura digging into the Uzumaki family name, Naruto and Kakashi looking into Jinchuriki, and Haku started on her quest to fulfill Zabuza's dream.

Plus, Haku has a crush on Naruto, isn't that cute?


End file.
